Dropshipping is increasingly becoming a well-liked trend in e-commerce. However, Weebly’s CEO and Founder, David Rusenko is not for the idea. Even though this site-building platform has continued to serve more and more merchants, Rusenko is ready to completely cut off that particular set of users. He feels that this idea may further promote the mass production of cheap crap products which is already a global challenge.

In essence, drop shippers are like middlemen in e-commerce. Their key role is exposing shoppers to items that they would have otherwise not come across. For instance, drop shippers organize listings on Amazon for a product that you can only find on eBay and charges an extra $10 or $15. Buyers purchasing in Amazon will meet the dropshipper’s set of items on eBay. If a customer makes a purchase, the dropshipper directly buys it from eBay and ships it to them.

This new method of buying goods can lead to complications, especially in cases where a customer is dissatisfied and wishes to make a return. If the trade is conducted directly from a retailer like Amazon then making a return is a smooth process. The same doesn’t apply to situations where a middleman is involved. In fact, customers are often frustrated on realizing the extra fee they paid went to a merchant account for drop shipping merely because the middleman listed the product.

Even worse is the fact that a buyer will always blame the original brand creator even when it wasn’t their mistake. Fred Ruckel, the inventor of Cat toy, fell a victim of similar circumstances back in 2016 and was only able to cut off drop shippers by withdrawing the brand’s products from Amazon (however, Ruckel recently put back his primary product on the site).

The other disadvantage of this practice is that intermediaries tend to source the merchandise they sell from cut-rate Chinese markets, e.g., Aliexpress. This kind of shipping is common in Shopify sites and other independent e-commerce websites. And they have developed a web of software to automate the process. You can come across ads for dropshipped items on social media, e.g., Instagram & Facebook. And one mistake drop shippers make is failing to inform customers on the negative side of buying from an intermediary.

While drop shippers make the most of the extremely low wholesale prices from markets like Aliexpress, they forget to look into quality. Plus a customer has to wait longer due to the slow shipping process. All these are factors that could lead to poor customer experience.

The bottom line

According to Rusenko, the trend is a failure, and he is willing to miss out on some merchants to stand against dropshipping. He says the trend is the direct opposite of Weebly’s mission and purpose which is to assist creative entrepreneurs.

Author Bio:Electronic payments expert Blair Thomas co-founded eMerchantBroker, the No.1 Merchant Account for drop shipping Company serving both traditional and high-risk merchants. His passions include producing music and traveling to far off exotic places.